Escheat

[L. Fr. eschete, escket, from esekier, eschoir, to fall or happen; L. Lat. esckasta, escceta, A falling or happening.] In feudal and English law. The fa Uing (falling back or reverting) of lands, by accident or chance, to the lord of whom they are holden, in consequence of the extinction of the b]ood of the tenant, either by his dying without heirs, {propter defectum sanguinis,) or by his attainder for treason or felony, (propter delictum tenentis),* Co. Litt. 18 a, 92 b.

S Bl. Com, 72, 73. Id. 244, 245. 1 Steph, Com, 401. 402, 414. 1 Crabb*s Beal Prop. 638, § 818. 2 Id. 1028, § 2411.

Mr. Stephen distinguishes between escheat properly so called, and forfeiture; the former being the effect of the death of the tenant without heirs, the latter of his violation of his duty to his lord.

1 Steph, Com, 166.

A distinction is also made in the case of attainder between escheat to the lord of the fee, and forfeiture to the crown.

Id. 409.

See Forfeiture. But both words seem to have been used indifferently to signify the same thing, from a very early period. Britt. c.

18.

See Escata, Eschete. The land or fee itself, which thus fell back to the lord. Spelman, voc.

Esehata.

Such lands were called excadentia, or terriB excadentiales, Fleta^ lib.

6, c. 1. Co. Litt. 13 a.

Any profits that fell to the lord on the tenant's death, without heirs. Called by the civilians caduea^ (q. v.) Co. Litt. 13 a. Escheat is applied in old records to material substances that fell to the ground. Thus the escheat of wood, signified all the appendages of lop and top, <&c., that belonged to a tree felled or cut doum. John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich, gave liberty to the monks of his church that in his wood of Thorp they should have one tree with the branches, bark, loppings, root, and all the escheat, {tota eschcsta.) Cowell,